Waiting
by CherryBerry12
Summary: Naruto makes it home for dinner every night, because Shikamaru and Sakura are always there to cover for him. Shikamaru/Sakura. Blank Period.


**A/N: Another entry for rarepair bingo! Please comment/review if you have the time 3 **

* * *

Naruto always makes it home by dinner time.

"But Shika—"

"I've got it." He's always had it.

"And Sak—"

Sakura waves him away. "I can take over, Naruto, don't worry."

Naruto's eyes ping back and forth between the two of them, and he sheepishly rubs the back of his head. "You know, you two don't always have to do this. Hinata says she actually rests better when I'm not home, and with the baby coming and all…"

Shikamaru lets out a tired sigh and holds out his hand expectantly. "I said we've got it already. Stop wasting our time and go see your wife."

"Right! Uh…" Naruto fumbles in his backpack for several minutes before tossing Shikamaru his work folder. It's beat to hell, fuzzy at the edges, and held together with several brave rubber bands that strain and seem likely to snap any second. Entirely the sort of thing Naruto would carry around and refuse to replace.

Well, it's not like Naruto has ever had to take work home with him before.

Set free, Naruto immediately spins on his heel and sprints toward the exit. "I really owe you guys one!" he shouts, waving as he makes for the door.

Shikamaru shakes his head, turning the folder over in his hands. He thumbs through the pages, sees a mess of half-complete responses to academy applications dated from the last Friday, zoning proposals with frustrated doodles of foxes and babies in the margins. In a week, Naruto somehow manages to accumulate a month's worth of unfinished work.

Sakura peeks over his shoulder and stifles a laugh. "What does Naruto _do_ all day in his office?"

"Not much of anything, from the looks of it," Shikamaru replies, turning down the opposite end of the hallway, footsteps echoing in the emptying building. "So we might as well get started."

If they're lucky, after all, they might be on their way home by nine.

"But I mean, with the system we've got in place, maybe we'll get out of here at a decent time tonight," Sakura remarks. They pass a trio of nurses already halfway out of their uniforms, comfortable work shoes traded for heels, low-cut blouses revealed from under their white coats. Sakura waves goodbye half-heartedly, and Shikamaru doesn't miss how her eyes linger on them after they pass. "It's Friday, though. New assignments almost never come in on Fridays."

They make it to the end of the hallway, and Shikamaru holds open the door to the Hokage's office for Sakura. Even if they weren't allowed to be there, it's Friday and, like every other Friday, Kakashi is out of the office as soon as he can be certain the village won't fall apart over the weekend. "You'd think, but this," he says, giving Naruto's folder a good shake, "Feels like three hours at least. He's probably been hoarding work, thinking he'd somehow get it finished later."

Sakura smiles, a crooked, well-meaning thing, but even her patience has its limits. "He has the best intentions. Just…" She shrugs. "Just not the best execution."

"The best intentions, and a nice, home-cooked meal every night. Every dinner I've eaten this week has come out of a box." He tosses the folder onto one of the advisor's empty desks. "Might as well get into it, then."

The Hokage's office is unofficially their office after hours; every clerk, secretary, and advisor clears out of the building soon after Kakashi leaves, and after the scramble of bodies that follows him out the door, he and Sakura will be two of the only people in the entire building.

Sakura drops down into Kakashi's chair and spins around a little, tilting her head back. "When Naruto finally becomes Hokage, we're both going on strike until we get our own offices. Nice ones, too," she comments, tugging the tie from her hair. She combs her fingers through it, parting knots and straightening the waves her ponytail left behind. She sighs, scratching the back of her head. "That'll be the day."

They've been doing this for a while, and so neither of them has a problem working in silence, each taking a stack of papers to work through so they can be filed on Monday when everyone comes back. Time passes quickly when they're both deep in concentration, and when Shikamaru finally takes a mental break and looks up from his borrowed desk, the sky is cherry-red, the sun already on its way down.

Footsteps hit the roof of the building and all of them move on except one pair that hits hard and slips, gravel raining off of the rooftop.

_Three shots enough to do you in, Inuzuka?_ someone calls.

_Aw, fuck you guys!_ There's a noise like someone scrambling over roof tiles, and Kiba adds, _I just slipped!_

There's a short laugh, and Shikamaru glances over to Kakashi's desk. Sakura is leaning on her fist and up at the ceiling with a dreamy smile. The squad of jounin take off again, and she shakes her head before returning back to her work, still smiling.

It's been a while since Shikamaru has personally joined them, but it isn't as if there's anything stopping him.

There is, after all, no one waiting for him at home anymore.

_The Leaf Village isn't the only village out there_, Temari had said when she left, and she'd been absolutely right. She'd shrugged her fan onto her back and left the village the same day she dumped him._ I can't stay here for the rest of my life; I've got my own career to think of. _She'd at least given him one last hug for the road. _Gaara's doing a good job but… Well, he's no born politician, and I was raised for this. He's gonna need my help. You know what that's like._

_Yeah_, Shikamaru had said, tucking his hands into his pockets, turning back towards the Hokage Tower. Y_eah, I know what it's like._ They'd spent years circling each other, bumping shoulders at diplomatic events, sharing celebratory shots of whiskey afterwards, but he couldn't think of anything else to say her.

He knew what it was like; what more was there?

Sasuke was long gone too, but Shikamaru still can't tell if Sakura is waiting or not, because there's a whole village of single young men, any of who would be glad to have her and… And it's Friday night, and Sakura is clicking her pen back and forth in a dingy office while the rest of the village workforce is out celebrating the end of their week.

They're going on three hours of paperwork when Shikamaru looks up at her and says, "You know, I can probably finish this if you want to go home early."

"Mhm." Sakura eases into the desk as the evening draws on. She's resting on one elbow while she makes corrections to a mission report, one pen tucked behind her ear, forgotten, while she writes with another. Her legs are comfortably tucked under her, the heeled shoes she wore that morning tossed somewhere across the room about an hour ago.

"It's mostly just expense reports that are left," he continues, not even looking up at her. "I can finish them myself."

"It's fine," she replies. "We'll get this done a lot faster if we work together." She shrugs, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Her hand stops when she finds the pen she left there, and she lets out a tired laugh, throwing the second pen back onto the desk. "And it's not like I've got anywhere to be in a hurry."

"It's just like - oh, dammit, Naruto, it's simple arithmetic. Ugh," Shikamaru rubs his eyes. "It's just you're always stuck here late with me, finishing up all of this work."

"I don't mind it or anything. It's my work too, you know."

"Yeah, I know."

He knows, because he's offered every evening since the first time Naruto collapsed in the hallway, almost in tears as he attempted to sort through his unfinished paperwork. The first time Shikamaru sighed, ran his hand through his hair, and held out his hand, and the first time Sakura giggled, and said, _We can at least help you with some of this, Naruto._

Shikamaru has offered every Friday since that first long, three-pots-of-coffee night, because he assumes Sakura, unlike him, could actually make something out of an entire evening to herself.

Sakura has yet to accept.

"I'll be gone in a few weeks, though," she adds. "So I should maybe scare some sense into Naruto before I take off. Kakashi wants me to go with him on a mission to Suna; they're building a new wing to their hospital and there's going to be a small commemorative ceremony for Lady Chiyo."

"I can see why they'd want you there, then," he says, and he absolutely means it. He thinks of having to spend a week or two weeks alone in this office, scratching away into the night without her. "You're a good face for Konoha."

"I'll be making lots of paperwork for you, though," she remarks, smiling over the rim of her mug of tea. She sets it back down and, running her hand through her bangs, laughs. "I've been cooped up inside this building so long that the next fight I get into is going to end in record time."

"That's what you should be doing," he comments, entirely serious. "Being a ninja, not cooped up here doing paperwork." He looks down at his hands just to see the calluses on his palms that are going soft, the ones around his fingers that are hardening where he sets his pen. "I think the sharpest weapon I've handled in months is a paperclip."

Sakura snorts. "You know, I was expecting you to say I belong in a kitchen or something. Back in the day, the stuff you said used to make me so angry…"

"Nah." He shakes his head. "I don't doubt for a second you could put me through this wall if I even tried it." Shikamaru has seen what a single one of her punches could do to Naruto, who outclasses him in almost every possible way, and he has no personal desire to see what it would do to him. "I mean, three years behind a desk and you're still strongest kunoichi in Konoha. I might be able to take out a genin if I get a good enough headstart."

She stifles a laugh, and he thinks it's a good thing she's too nice to openly laugh at him. "Well, I don't know about all of that…"

Shikamaru fumbles in his jacket until he finds the box of cigarettes he keeps there, just in case. He hasn't smoked a single one in the three years he's had it, but it feels good to hold it in his hands sometimes, to tease his brain into thinking it's going to get a nice shot of dopamine, free of charge.

Sakura eyes it with poorly disguised disapproval, and he's not even close to being crazy enough to smoke in front of a med-nin.

"I just wanna be ready for when the time comes. Once Naruto becomes Hokage…" He shrugs. "I don't doubt he's going to have you at his right hand. An advisor, at minimum. I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up as the Jounin Commander, though." It was his dad's position too, but Sakura would be a good fit; she has his dad's methodical style. More brain cells than anyone else in their generation.

"You think so?"

"I know it." He tucks the box back into his pocket. "You're every bit as smart as I am but you belong in the field, out running missions. Putting the rest of the Rookie Twelve to shame."

She shakes her head, her bangs falling down into her face. "Now you're just messing with me."

"I mean it." But he has to play it cool here, because it just isn't something they talk about. There's a huge gap between keeping someone company once a week at work and, well, a real relationship. Something she would choose for herself. "It's why I offer every evening. You're, ah, a catch, and I keep waiting for some guy to waltz in here and sweep you off your feet." He shrugs, and can only hope Sakura sees it as a legitimate and natural-looking action. "It's only a matter of time until someone does."

Sakura doesn't have anything to say to that, which is almost the worst way she could respond.

"But I mean, you can, uh, be single too. Plenty of girls do that now, I guess. Be independent and all." Shikamaru cringes internally even as he speaks. He's practically eating his words now, chewing through his own thick tongue.

Sakura leans back in Kakashi's chair. She doesn't laugh but looks up at the ceiling, absentmindedly running her finger around the rim of her mug. "You know it's funny. I was kind of annoyed when this whole thing started—annoyed because I had to sit here all day and it seemed like… Like you and I were the only two people keeping this office going. Like we were the only ones who really gave a damn."

"What do you mean?"

"I think I wanted to be stuck here. I was… Well, I was waiting for Sasuke. But even after Sasuke… I was waiting for someone just like him, someone who was… Who…" Her lip quirks up into a smile, secretive like she's remembering some private wonder. "You know, I was in love with him for years but… sometimes I can't even remember what it was I liked about him."

He snorts, and feels some tension lift from his shoulders. "God, me too."

Sakura finally sets her mug down and pushes her chair back, standing with her back to the window, a hundred homes lighting the sky at her back.

"I think I've grown up a lot since then, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru watches the bright spark in her eye and swallows about a hundred things he has to say about it. "Yeah?"

"I want better than that."

"When Sasuke left, you didn't deserve—"

"You called him an asshole. I remember that. You said he was… I mean, I never told you what he said, did I? I just remember you saying that, that he was an asshole for leaving again." And Sasuke had absolutely deserved it walking out on Sakura again, for leaving her with whatever kind of hope could keep her waiting after him for so long. "I… I don't know if I really agree with that, but I needed to hear it."

"I didn't really mean to butt into your business like that. It just seemed unfair that he'd do that."

She'd agreed with him then, though. She'd laughed when he said Sasuke didn't care about anyone who wasn't currently kicking his ass, and she'd laughed, coughing up the rice she was eating over Kakashi's desk, grains of rice all over Naruto's paperwork.

"We've spent every Friday night here since then, you know…" she says, and she begins to walk around the desk, her hand trailing along the wood. "I realized I don't mind that."

"Well." Shikamaru looks down, shuffles papers on the desk he's been using. "I think it's about time we called it a night."

Sakura blinks and she stops, leaning back on Kakashi's desk. "Oh. Right."

He clears his throat. "I know that, uh, if it came down to it you'd be the one protecting my ass, but how about I walk you home anyway, and we both act like I won't scream and run for cover if anyone tries to mess with us."

She still smiles. "I think I'd like that."

"It isn't… It's not like Naruto can't deal with a little bit of work when he comes in on Monday."

It's quiet again while he scoops up his papers, shoving them back into Naruto's folder and stretching the rubber bands back over it. "You ready?" he asks when he's done, and Sakura nods, tightening the buckle on her heels.

"Ready."

The walk out of the building is quiet too, and it's a silence Shikamaru doesn't know how to break. Sakura walks with her head down but he sneaks enough glances out of the side of his eye to see she's still smiling, that dreamy far-off smile he usually only sees when she's thinking about being somewhere else.

She stops suddenly in the middle of the sidewalk without saying anything, but stares at one of the benches off the side. Shikamaru looks behind him to see if anyone is following them, if there's something that would have caught her attention, but they're alone. Instead of continuing on, she walks towards the bench and stands in front of it.

"Did you… did you want to sit down?" he offers, because he isn't the best at reading cues, and whatever she wants right now is beyond him.

"You don't give yourself enough credit, Shikamaru," she says instead, kicking at the bench with her heels. "You mentioned all of those single guys here in the village… You're just as good as any of them."

"I mean, I'm not… I'm not…" he laughs to himself, brief, and shakes his head. "I'm not like Sasuke, Sakura. I'm not… I'm not the type to take a girl on any adventures or bring down evil goddesses, I…" He scratches the back of his head. "Dammit, I just…" Just what?

"You're here with me every night. You respect me and wait for me and… and he didn't do that. No one else does that for me," she says, and suddenly they've moved away from theoretical bachelors, tossed aside his hypothetical women.

Like every other Friday, it's been whittled down to just the two of them.

"Right. I mean, yeah. I guess that's right." He clears his throat.

"When Sasuke left, I wanted to go with him. I offered to drop everything, quit my job just to travel with him and… and he told me he didn't want me to come along with him. That it was another mission he had to take alone. I've never had that problem with you."

"I'm not much to show off." She cocks an eyebrow at him and he shrugs. "I mean, you're gonna have a really hard time showing me off to Ino." He laughs, way too loud, and it's entirely unlike him, self-conscious in a way he's never really experienced. It's not ninjutsu where he can strategize his way out or shogi, where he can predict his opponent's movements. His only choice is honesty: "Ino has seen every one of my tricks. She's known me since we were babies, will tell you just as many embarrassing stories as my parents. She can also kick my ass now, too, I'm—"

Sakura cuts him off, yanking him down by the front of his jacket and smashing their lips together. She could snap him like a twig but her lips are soft, glossy. Everything he'd ever imagined them to feel like, and more. "You are exactly what I want," Sakura says, and she lets his jacket go. "Even if you haven't realized it yet."


End file.
